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Robert MICHEAU-VERNEZ – The Artist

1907/1989

‘Where has this man been!’

This painter of light lived his entire life in the shade. The world can now discover his fragment of truth  “… his nuggets of sunlight set by a master, like gems in a relic…”

The artist in the early 70’s The painter Micheau-Vernez

Vase with flowers, oil, 1978 – 92 x 60 cm The art of color

When Armand Drouant, of the Drouant Galerie, rue du Faubourg St-Honoré in Paris, discovered Micheau-Vernez in 1977 (the painter was then 70 and utterly unknown), his spontaneous exclamation was: “where has this man been!”. He immediately decided to organize an exhibition of his work. Art critic André Parinaud, editor of the magazine La Galerie des Arts, enthusiastically wrote that he considered him one of the great colorists of the second half of the 20th century, and encouraged him to exhibit in France and abroad – in vain.

In 2008, thirty years later, Jean-Marc Michaud, Head Custodian of the Morbihan Museums, discovered Micheau-Vernez’s work in his turn and immediately organized a great retrospective exhibition in the Le Faouët Museum. The paintings of course, since that art form was the thread running through the painter’s whole lifework, but also the drawings, illustrations, posters, sculptures, ceramics, stained glass, icons,… enabling Brittany to discover at last a talented and eclectic artist only twenty-seven years in his grave.